DES MOINES, Iowa – Call them the Dean Defectors – they used to like Howard Dean, but now are so turned off that some offer the ultimate insult for a Democrat: He reminds them of President Bush.

“I was interested in Dean, but he turned me off,” said college student Katy Cunconan, 21, of Des Moines. “It’s like he talks before he thinks. His remark about the Confederate flag is what started it. Then in the last debate, he seemed like he got too angry.

“In the way he comes off, he just reminds me of Bush. He just doesn’t sound as intelligent as the other candidates. I don’t want another president who will embarrass us,” added Cunconan, who now backs John Kerry.

Tim Grover, 46, who runs a Des Moines-based mobile disk-jockey service, said: “I liked the energy Dean has brought to the Democratic Party, but he seems kind of combative, and he’s got Bush’s smirk. It just doesn’t appeal.”

The Dean Defectors are making Dean aides bite their fingernails about tomorrow’s Iowa caucuses. A few weeks ago it looked like a Dean slam-dunk, but now it’s a four-way tie with Kerry, Rep. Dick Gephardt (Mo.) and Sen. John Edwards (N.C.)

Rival strategist David Axelrod, who works for Edwards, said, “I still think Dean will win, but he’s sort of lost his mojo” – and lost the Dean Defectors.

Another rival strategist says the Dec. 13 capture of Saddam Hussein marked the turning point as much as Dean’s own gaffes. Overnight, it got harder to rage against the war – and that made Democrats move beyond anger to issues like character and electability.

Des Moines social worker Rick Hirst, 51, who’s choosing between Dean and Edwards, said: “There is all this constant comment that Dean is always angry, and you start looking and he does seem angry. He’s always running at the hyper level. He seems too Northeastern.”

Brenda Peshel, 32, said: “Dean I like because he’s against the war, but Edwards is more down-to-earth, and he’s not politically driven or high and mighty like Dean seems to be.

“With Dean, it just seems like he’s up to something. He says things people want to hear, not exactly what he thinks.”